Milwaukee Business Journal: Wisconsin startups raised record $280M in 2018 while deals to women-led companies shrunk

Health care technology and information technology startup companies dominated the number of capital-raising deals by Wisconsin companies in 2018, while the number of deals to women-led or women-owned companies in the state shrunk, according to a recent report from the Wisconsin Technology Council.

The Wisconsin Portfolio, conducted by the WIT and its Tech Council Investor Networks, shows $280.7 million was raised by 121 early-stage companies based in Wisconsin in 2018, a record for any one year. In 2017, companies raised $231 million and in 2016, raised $276.2 million, the previous all-time high. Since 2014, startups in Wisconsin have raised $1.21 billion, according to the report.

Of the money raised in 2018, 43.9% went to health technology companies, followed by IT companies, which received 25.8% of those funds. Investors from Chicago, Boston, New York and California were identified in roughly 49% of deals in which the investors are known.

The number of deals made by women-led or women-owned businesses shrunk more than 2% when compared with the year-ago period and more than 5% since 2016. In 2018, only 14% of the companies that raised capital were women-led or owned, down from 16.5% in 2017 and 19.7% in 2016. Read the full story here.

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